a. (sb.) [f. as prec. + -IC; cf. Gr. τυμπανικός suffering from tympanites. So F. tympanique, Pg. tymp-, Sp. timpanico.]
1. Anat. and Zool. Of, pertaining to, or connected with the tympanum, or drum of the ear (as tympanicartery, bulla, cavity, membrane, muscle, nerve, ossicle, etc.); of the nature of a tympanum.
Tympanic bone, in mammals, a bone of annular or tubular form supporting the tympanic membrane and surrounding the external auditory meatus (in the adult forming part of the temporal bone); in lower vertebrates, one of several bones variously supposed to be homologous with this, esp. the quadrate bone, which supports the lower jaw. Tympanic pedicle, the slender bone or series of bones by which the lower jaw is suspended in fishes. Tympanic plate, ring, the tympanic bone of mammals.
1808. Med. Jrnl., XIX. 410. Other branches of the same nerve which supply the tympanic muscles.
1840. E. Wilson, Anat. Vade M. (1842), 277. The Tympanic branch [of the glossopharyngeal nerve] is small.
1849. Lyell, 2nd Visit U.S. (1850), II. 75. The convoluted tympanic bones … characteristic of cetaceans.
1851. Richardson, Geol., viii. (1855), 308. The lower jaw is articulated to a tympanic bone as in reptiles.
1851. Carpenter, Princ. Physiol., § 825. The purpose of this Tympanic apparatus is … to receive the sonorous vibrations from the air, and to transmit them to the membranous wall of the labyrinth.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., 225. These aërial waves enter the external ear, meet … the so-called tympanic membrane.
1860. Mayne, Expos. Lex., Tympanic Pedicle,… the large and long pedicle which supports the mandible in fishes,… subdivided into sometimes two or three, and commonly into four pieces.
1876. Nature, 20 July, 253/2. Sawing out the temporal bone,… and exposing the tympanic bulla.
1893. Newton, Dict. Birds, 180. The quadrate bone … in Mammals … is reduced and modified into the comparatively insignificant tympanic ring.
b. as sb. Short for tympanic bone.
1851. Richardson, Geol. (1855), 287. The lower jaw … is articulated to the upper jaw by a distinct bone (the tympanic).
1881. Mivart, Cat, 65. Between the anterior end of the tympanic and the post-glenoid process is a narrow chink … which transmits the chorda tympani nerve.
2. Pertaining to or resembling a drum; in Path. tympanitic.
1891. Cent. Dict., s.v., Tympanic resonance, tympanitic resonance.
3. Arch. Pertaining to a tympanum.
1909. Spectator, 6 Nov., Suppl. 713/1. The ‘Doom’ often vividly depicted on the tympanic background, and the Saviour upon the cross in connexion with it.
